{"id":2504,"date":"2015-10-31T13:11:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T13:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=2504"},"modified":"2015-10-31T21:34:19","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T21:34:19","slug":"fisk-burial-cases-old-catholic-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/fisk-burial-cases-old-catholic-cemetery","title":{"rendered":"Iron Mummies Haunt These Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fisk Metallic Burial Cases and the Old Catholic Cemetery<\/h2>\n
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It is, perhaps, one of the most popular photographs in the W.C. Brown Collection<\/a> \u2014 especially this time of year, when ghouls and goblins are rumored to roam freely on the eve of All Saints Day.
\n $\"BROWN_85\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
\u201c1896 \u2014\u00a0These iron coffins, resembling Egyptian mummy cases were found in the old Catholic cemetery near the old Reyman brewery. As Wheeling was an iron city, it is likely that they were made here. They were used in England and Germany during the 19th century.\u201d<\/strong>
\n-W.C. Brown<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Standing sentinel, high on a high hill, a\u00a0mummified iron casket keeps watch over a fallen friend in the abandoned cemetery.\u00a0Propped stiffly against empty burial vault walls, all that remains of what was once entombed\u00a0inside\u00a0is an\u00a0empty black face that peers eerily out towards\u00a0East Wheeling. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Old \u00a0Catholic Cemetery<\/h3>\n
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$\"Close-up$ <\/a>
Close-up of an 1877 Map of Wheeling showing \u201cRoman Catholic Cemetery.\u201d From \u201cIllustrated atlas of the upper Ohio River and Valley from Pittsburgh, Pa. to Cincinnati, Ohio,\u201d compiled & drawn for the publisher by E.L. Hayes ; eng. by Worley & Bracher, 1877. -OCPL Archives<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The Old Catholic Cemetery, otherwise\u00a0known as Manchester Cemetery, sat on the hillside above Rock Point Road near the intersection of Reymann Street.<\/p>\n
According to a history of Wheeling cemeteries found in \u201cHistory of Wheeling city and Ohio County, West Virginia and representative citizens,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> edited and compiled by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902: \u201cPrior to the year 1850-51 the Roman Catholics of this city had no regular or rather no peculiar place for burying their dead, but dis\u00adposed of them in the various graveyards of the city. When, however, the ordinance of council in regard to the removal of the Hemp\u00adfield cemetery [current site of the library and former site of the B&O rail yards] was passed, they began to cast around for a site or place of interment that should be exclusively Catholic, and by and by, with the advice and consent of Bishop Whelan, purchased a portion of the ground at the base of the hill, northwest of Manchester. This piece of ground came off the Reilly estate. The Catholic dead were at once removed to the new cemetery from the Hempfield and other graveyards, and in a few years became quite full.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
$\"W.C.$ <\/a>
W.C. Brown Photo #84: Caption reads, \u201c1896 \u2014 The ruins of the old burial vaults in the old Catholic cemetery on the hill above Reyman\u2019s brewery.\u201d -OCPL Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
When the Diocese opened\u00a0 Mt. Calvary Cemetery<\/a>\u00a0 in\u00a01872, bodies from the Old Catholic Cemetery were reinterred \u2014 and possibly re-reinterred \u2014 in the new cemetery on National Road.<\/p>\n
Fisk\u2019s Patented Metallic Burial Cases<\/h3>\n
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\u201cTo all whom it might concern. Be it known that I, ALMOND D. FISK, of the city of New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful manner of constructing an Air-Tight Coffin of Cast or Raised Metal; and I do hereby declare that the following\u2019 is a full and exact description thereof.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 U.S. Patent Application, November 14, 1848<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
$\"U.S.$ <\/a>
U.S. Patent drawing by Almond D. Fisk for \u201cImprovement in Coffins,\u201d November 14, 1848. -US Patent and Trademark Office<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Almond D. Fisk was granted his patent in 1848, and the \u201cFisk metallic burial cases\u201d\u00a0were born. Created so that the \u201cair may be exhausted so completely as entirely to prevent the decay of the contained body on principles well understood; or, if preferred, the coffin may be filled with any gas or fluid having the property of preventing putrefaction,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
The mystery of our black face peering out into East Wheeling? A decorative iron plate covered a glass window which allowed mourners to \u201cbehold again the features of the bereaved.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
Creepy as that may sound,\u00a0the Fisk caskets enjoyed popularity for many years and\u00a0several dignitaries \u2014 including John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay<\/a>, who was instrumental in bringing the National Road through Wheeling \u2014 were entombed in one of these patented iron coffins.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the fashionable burial devices\u00a0made their way to the Upper Ohio Valley in the mid-19th century, and\u00a0Fisk caskets were sold by several merchants in Wheeling during the 1860s and 1870s.<\/p>\n
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The Demise of Manchester Cemetery<\/h2>\n
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$\"Daily$ <\/a>Following the reinterment of bodies from Old Catholic Cemetery to Mt. Calvary, the old cemetery on the hill above East Wheeling fell into disrepair. Vandalism soon followed.<\/p>\n
A June 11th, 1890 article from the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em><\/strong> reported: \u201cA man who was passing the old Catholic Cemetery in Manchester . . . was horrified to see a crowd of boys playing with a skull stuck on the end of a stick . . . A few days before boys were seen in the same cemetery kicking a skull for a foot-ball, and they varied the game by trying to kick the teeth out. Residents near the place say that it is not an uncommon thing for boys to play pitch and toss with skulls which they find on the ground there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Manchester Cemetery is not much more than a few leaning tombstones<\/a> in a wood. Protected by a \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d sign by order of the Wheeling Police, the grave site remains relatively undisturbed.<\/p>\n
When W.C. Brown visited the ruins in 1896 and photographed a sturdy iron casket standing guard over a fallen friend, however, one could almost imagine the dead had come alive to protect their own.\u00a0And who knows? Some may still be around. For even a coffin made of iron cannot restrict a restless soul on All Hallows\u2019 Eve.<\/div>\n
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To learn more about Fisk caskets and 19th century funerary customs, listen to an\u00a0interesting interview with Jon N. Austin, Executive Director of the Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield, Illinois. The interview was conducted by the Hidden Truths Project<\/a> documenting The Chicago City Cemetery and Lincoln Park.<\/em><\/p>\n
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